Five new restaurants you should try on the Strip

Kobe beef tacos are among the Asian fusion dishes at Kumi, a Japanese restaurant that opened this week at Mandalay Bay. COURTESY PHOTO/MANDALAY BAY

People still wander around the Las Vegas Strip wondering where they can get the $3.99 prime rib they heard about in some late-night rerun. The answer: Try 1987.

These days, it's tough to find a $5 foot-long at a Subway on the Strip. Las Vegas is not the place to chase bargains that died with Liberace. Vegas is a place where chefs come to make a name for themselves, after they've perfected their chops toiling away in the kitchens of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Paris.

There are two types of entrées in Vegas – those over $40 and those under $40. I can spend $40 in a week eating stuff I can’t remember the next day. Or I can save it up for one dish created by David Myers and Brian Howard at Comme Ça that is as memorable as an Aaron Sorkin television show or a Steve Nash pass off a pick-and-roll.

The chefs, meanwhile, are constantly reinventing menus and creating new experiences. For your next trip, try something new. Here are five of the newest restaurants in Vegas you need to try:

Kumi

The new Japanese restaurant inside Mandalay Bay opened this week. It’s the newest offering from executive chef Akira Back, who I’ve blamed for many a food hangover from a night of eating to excess at Yellowtail in the Bellagio. I get cravings for the bigeye tuna pizza.

When a menu features something called Screaming O Sauce, well, that’s something you just have to try. There’s whitefish carpaccio or yellowtail jalapeño to spice up the night. Entrées include the Alaskan halibut and bone-in pork chop.

Entrées: $40 and under, except for the rib-eye. That will run you $48, in line with most other places on the Strip.

Five50 Pizza Bar

Five50 is named after what chef Shawn McClain considers the perfect temperature to cook a pizza, which is about the same temperature as the sidewalk outside in the middle of August.

McClain’s menu at the new Aria pizzeria includes the Truffle Pizza, piled with potato, truffle salami, béchamel, Parmesan and fresh thyme. And, of course, truffles. Another is called the North Beach, with clams and smoked mozzarella, and there’s one called the farmstead, with prosciutto, crème fraîche and olives, topped with an over-easy egg. Get there at 5:50 p.m. and you’ll enjoy 50-cent beers.

Entrées: under $40. Actually, the 16-inch pizzas are under $30.

Nobu Caesars Palace

You may have eaten at his restaurant at the Hard Rock Casino, but there’s no experience quite like the new Nobu restaurant in the hotel of the same name inside Caesars Palace.

Yes, it’s a restaurant in a hotel in a hotel. Just around the corner from the Caesars Palace sports book sits the world’s largest Nobu restaurant. Chef Nobu MatsuhisaMatsahisa surely isn’t done building them. He has more than 30 worldwide. This one is 12,775 square feet, but it provides intimacy, broken into smaller areas, with pods resembling Japanese lanterns. There’s also a teppanyaki area with two tables that seat eight and a private area for 16. Teppanyaki grilling is a Japanese tradition that has been turned into entertainment in strip malls across America. This is about the food.

The restaurant also has rolled out a lunch menu, available 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends.

Entrées: over $40. You also can choose among four prix fixe menus, serving up eight courses in prices ranging from $90-$280. A 12-ounce “Premium Japanese Wagyu” dinner will cost $500. It comes with mixed vegetables, greens and miso soup.

Carmine’s

Carmine’s could be the biggest restaurant on the Strip. It’s not big. It’s huge: 27,000 square feet and 720 seats, with six private dining areas. It sits in the former Planet Hollywood nightclub, and the owners expanded the room to make it bigger. It’s more than double the size of the Carmine’s serving the busy New York theater crowd in Times Square.

The newly opened restaurant inside the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace has food that’s just as big. The eggplant parmigiana is 9 inches tall. And it’s listed as a side dish.

Entrées: under $40, but this is deceiving because they are served family-style, so you get a heap of food to share around the table.

Pub 18421841

Michael Mina has jumped into the craze for pub grub and crazy cocktails with his latest offering at the MGM Grand. Following pubs from Todd English (Aria) and Gordon Ramsay (Caesars Palace), Mina’s new place provides a casual meeting spot amid in the four- and five-diamond restaurants at the massive emerald entertainment complex.

But this is not your average bar food: Appetizers include “Crab Louis” deviled eggs. Mina gets creative on the burger menu with a Peanut Butter Crunch Burger with bacon jam, potato chips and pimento cheese. A vegetarian burger option is really just like mother used to make. Mina adopted his mother’s falafel recipe.

Named for the year the Pilsner was invented, the pub offers a variety of suds, with more than two dozen beers on tap, including California’s Speakeasy and Ballast Point Brands, and more by the bottle.

Entrées: under $40. Some of the burgers and sandwiches are under $20. That’s cheap by Vegas standards.

And really, ask yourself: Do you really want a prime rib that only costs $3.99?

Planning ahead

R&B chanteuse Toni Braxton is set for an Aug. 9 show at the Pearl inside the Palms Casino Resort. Tickets start at $88 … The Monkees are still busy singing after 47 years in rock ‘n’ roll. With longevity like that, we’re not putting them down. They play Aug. 10 at the Grand Events Center at Green Valley Ranch in Henderson with Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz, the drummer who gives us a glimpse of what Bruno Mars may look like when he’s 68. Tickets start at $35 … Who better to take on Sin City than a bunch of guitar-wielding Christians? Stryper founders Michael Sweet and Oz Fox have traded metal for acoustic these days, appearing Aug. 16 at Sunset Station in Henderson. They also bring a little White Lion with them, featuring special guest Michael Tramp from that ‘80s hair band. Tickets start at $15 … Every Friday night at Rocks Lounge at Red Rock Casino, country songwriters Brian McComas and Aaron Benward host “Nashville Unplugged.” Each week they jam with featured guests. Among those appearing this month is Victoria Shaw on Aug. 23. Shaw has written songs for Garth Brooks and Christina Aguilera. She also wrote one of the most memorable country love songs of the 1990s – “I Love the Way You Love Me” for John Michael Montgomery.

Planning ahead

R&B chanteuse Toni Braxton is set for an Aug. 9 show at the Pearl inside the Palms Casino Resort. Tickets start at $88 … The Monkees are still busy singing after 47 years in rock ‘n’ roll. With longevity like that, we’re not putting them down. They play Aug. 10 at the Grand Events Center at Green Valley Ranch in Henderson with Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz, the drummer who gives us a glimpse of what Bruno Mars may look like when he’s 68. Tickets start at $35 … Who better to take on Sin City than a bunch of guitar-wielding Christians? Stryper founders Michael Sweet and Oz Fox have traded metal for acoustic these days, appearing Aug. 16 at Sunset Station in Henderson. They also bring a little White Lion with them, featuring special guest Michael Tramp from that ’80s hair band. Tickets start at $15 … Every Friday night at Rocks Lounge at Red Rock Casino, country songwriters Brian McComas and Aaron Benward host “Nashville Unplugged.” Each week they jam with featured guests. Among those appearing this month is Victoria Shaw on Aug. 23. Shaw has written songs for Garth Brooks and Christina Aguilera. She also wrote one of the most memorable country love songs of the 1990s – “I Love the Way You Love Me” for John Michael Montgomery.

Kobe beef tacos are among the Asian fusion dishes at Kumi, a Japanese restaurant that opened this week at Mandalay Bay. COURTESY PHOTO/MANDALAY BAY
Chef Michael Mina says, "I want Pub 1842 to be a place where guests want to linger long after they have finished their meal to enjoy a few beers, play some games and maybe make new friends." COURTESY PHOTO/MGM GRAND
Executive chef Akira Back points to the bone-in pork chop as one of his favorites at Kumi, a new Japanese restaurant that opened this week at Mandalay Bay. COURTESY PHOTO/MANDALAY BAY
Booths designed by David Rockwell provide intimate seating in the new Nobu restaurant at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. COURTESY PHOTO/CAESARS PALACE

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